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Welcome to the Ramblings of an RC Plane Enthusiast

Here’s a good life rule. Don’t be a dope. And a good second rule: Don’t listen to dopes. As it turns out, the world is full of people who know ALL about whatever it is you’re looking at for the first time. It doesn’t matter if it’s their first time too - they pretty much know all about everything already, right? I’m not exactly a betting man - I only brought 2 rolls of quarters when I went to a casino - but I’ll bet a hundred bucks right now that you’ve met a couple of them.

As it happens, I’m more the “try it out” type than the “check it out” type. When I became aware that there were RC fighter planes that I could afford that looked exactly like the real thing, I was immediately hooked. But I didn’t go looking for stuff to read on the web, or looking for a club, or for other people that fly RC planes. I just watched videos online of other people flying their RC planes, and got more and more itchy. And after my second evening of flying videos on Youtube, I got out the card and bought two planes. A trainer that I thought I could handle (for my first flight), and an F4U Corsair (for my second). I’m sure you all know what LOL means.

I should interject here that I’m a life long fighter enthusiast. Fighters are the ultimate expression of a single seat airplane, muscular and sleek, with more power than a kid who grew up on a bicycle could imagine, and the aerobatic ability to fly like an angry eagle. Whatever it is that makes people love airplanes, I’m soaked with it. They must have hosed me down in the womb. Or maybe before that.

When I was very young - pre-school, when you open books to look at the pictures - I saw an illustration of how the flight controls in a plane work, using a modern light plane as an example. I actually still remember that picture, and my reaction, which was this:

That’s wrong. There’s no steering wheel in a plane, you use a stick to steer.

I now wonder exactly how I knew that little tidbit. And, as it turns out, I already knew how to fly a plane before I even began. Not straight and level, mind you- just yankin’ and bankin’. Immelmans, split esses, chandelles, and the old standard fighter dive - flip over on your back and YANK that sucker down for a strafing run. Just where does a little kid learn this stuff? And what was that I said about dopes who already know everything?

My wife, The Lovely Denise, actually thinks I was a pilot in a previous life. She says she woke me from a nightmare once, and I sat up speaking French. I don’t speak French. I can barely speak English. I don’t specifically believe in that stuff, but I don’t DISbelieve it, either. It’s just harder to think about objectively when the subject is you.

Hey, kid - where did you say you learned how to fly?

But I digress. I was talking about RC planes. Why don’t we get back to the subject, Steve?